Family-friendly recipes and snippets of family life from an Irish kitchen.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Guinness Gingerbread

A couple of weeks back I had a coffee morning in aid of The Hospice. It was a great opportunity for me to bake lots of goodies, so I tried out a few new recipes, since I knew there would be plenty of willing taste testers. I made a Guinness Gingerbread which was deliciously moist and the addition of the guinness really deepened the spicy flavour of the ginger. A few of the ladies had asked me for the recipe so here it is. It's a recipe from Nigella lawson's Kitchen and one that I had earmarked to try. It's so simple to make and when wrapped in parchment paper and tin foil it will keep for up to a week. The gingerbread can be enjoyed on it's own with a cuppa but if you'd like to serve it as a dessert it marries well with poached berries and cream.

Guinness Gingerbread

Ingredients

150g butter

300g golden syrup

250ml Guinness

2tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

200g dark muscavado sugar

2tsp grounder ginger

300g plain flour

2tsp bicarbonate of soda

300ml sour cream

2 large eggs

Baking tin/tray lined with parchment or greaseproof paper. A greased casserole dish would also work to allow for thick slices.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C/340F/gas mark 4.

2. Put the butter, syrup, muscavado sugar, Guinness, ginger, cinnamon and ground cloves into a pan and melt gently over a low heat.

3. Take off the heat and whisk in the flour and bicarbonate of soda. You will need to be patient and whisk thoroughly to get rid of any lumps.

4. Whisk the sour cream and eggs together in a measuring jug and then beat into the gingerbread mixture, whisking again to get a smooth batter.

5. Pour it into your lined square tin, or into a barbecue-type foil tray, and bake for about 45 minutes; when it’s ready it will be gleamingly risen at the centre, and coming away from the tin at the sides.

Thank you for your lovely comments.That's wonderful Donna. I asked an American friend what she would recommend in place of the golden syrup and she suggested Karo Syrup or else honey. So glad it worked out well for you!